


Paper Hearts, or, Eponine is Queen

by ohmister (roserising)



Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-14
Updated: 2013-02-14
Packaged: 2017-11-29 05:25:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/683329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roserising/pseuds/ohmister
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by a shitty Valentines "game" someone posted about their school doing on Tumblr. The Amis' high school is incredibly shitty, and the gang finds a way to subvert it while also showing some love for Eponine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paper Hearts, or, Eponine is Queen

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by [this post](http://ofthebrokenheartedangel.tumblr.com/post/43003494786/awesome-protests-erupted-in-my-school-today-our) on Tumblr.

    There are so, so many reasons that Enjolras hates Valentine's Day. The sexism, the commercialism, and the sheer, unabashed cheesiness of the holiday are just a few of them. Naturally, every year someone finds a way to add to that list, and this year - his junior year of high school - the culprit is none other than the school principal.

  
    The short-form version of the "game" the school devised is thus: Girls would be given paper hearts, and if they ever so much as spoke to a boy all day on Valentine's Day, they had to give him one of the hearts, which they could turn in for raffle tickets. (The girls, predictably, got nothing.) It's sexist, and just plain gross, and Cosette spends twenty minutes fuming about it during their usual after-school meeting in the mostly-abandoned art room. Some of the girls are planning to protest, and Enjolras figures it wouldn't be right if they didn't try to help. Anyway, he didn't want to participate in something like that... not least because if any of the group's male members did, he had a feeling Cosette would castrate them with one of her big plastic hair clips.

  
    The day of brings a fair amount of protest, which is always good to see. But of course, a few girls give their paper hearts away - a fair few to members of their little gang. Enjolras gets two before he comes up with a new idea.

  
    Turning around in his seat at the beginning of Algebra II, he slides the pastel paper hearts across the desk, giving Eponine a smile. "For you," he says. He can't really think of anyone who could use them more, and as somewhat confused as she is by the heart-giving, he also knows she won't mistake it for romantic intention. Eponine has known since they were old enough to think about it that Enjolras is gay - she's one of the only people who actually knows for sure.

  
    "What for?" Eponine asks, eyebrow raised, tapping a blunt fingernail on the paper. It doesn't leave a mark.

  
    "Whatever you want."

  
\-----

  
    He gives her two more hearts before Physics, and by then it's sort of... spread. She gets two from Combeferre, one from Grantaire, another two and a kiss on the cheek from Jehan (who is her unofficial actual self-appointed valentine), and five from Courfeyrac. Marius slips one in her bag - he gave his second to Cosette, who gave him a profoundly unmoved look in return. Feuilly and Bahorel net her another four, and Joly another one. Bossuet loses the one he plans to give her, somewhere, and never sees it again.

  
    At the end of the day, the boys are supposed to take their hearts to the library to be tallied, and to get their raffle tickets. The principal is there, along with a pretty long line of guys cashing in their one or two hearts - no one really got many, since so many of the girls were protesting the bullshit game. Eponine slides into line wearing Grantaire's red cap, her hearts in her hands - numbering twenty, she probably has more than anyone in the school. Her original heart is pinned to her jacket, where Enjolras has written in black sharpie, "The Queen of Hearts."

  
    He didn't tell her to go try to trade them in - she did it herself. And they don't give her the raffle tickets, but she walks away feeling satisfied, and there's applause, mock trumpet noises and pizza when she gets to the art room, cap crooked and grin wide. The pin over her heart still proclaims her the Queen of Hearts, and Enjolras cedes his habitual seat to "her majesty," which also makes it the only time on record that Enjolras has agreed with the concept of a monarchy.

  
    She doesn't think she's ever felt this good on Valentine's Day before.


End file.
